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I got an oil change today and was told that there are only 2 mm left on my rear pads. I think these are the original brake pads, @ 163.5 K miles...? Anyway, the shop wants so much money just for pads & labor. I'm going to give this a try. Revisited Rock Auto and these look good, better than OEM quality. The price is OK for me. (The shop didn't say anything whatsoever about the calipers.)

My understanding is that rotors, to varying degrees, are uniquely worn in a pattern matching the pads applied to them. In the old days, turning the rotors was always done (and if they ended up being too thin, then replaced) -- always done & included in the brake job fee. Nowadays, you have to pay for turning the rotors ($30) and if they end up too thin, I don't think they waive that $30 fee... Anyway, my car is now 12 years old with 163 K miles -- I'll treat myself. If this experience turns out to be positive, I'll also do the front brakes. Brake jobs are so expensive, and seems to be a fabricated money-maker, just as I found when replacing my struts & shocks. This same shop told me that I had a leaking strut (shock component), and I ended up saving Hundreds of dollars doing it myself (Rock Auto is great.) The last time I was in, they told me that my strut was leaking -- same story! I think they tell lots of customers this; great money-maker! I'm thinking now that I did not need to replace my struts and shocks after all....

Anyway, after watching that brake advertisement/descriptive video, I'm leaning towards this set of pads and rotors. I've scanned YouTube for "How To" videos, and added several to my Favorites folder for viewing later.

The shop also said I have some left front rubber boot that is cracked/torn -- that needs replacement. Telling me it's a big job to get to it, etc., etc., and quoting big bucks. If I don't do it, the joint will wear out. Yada Yada $$. Maybe I'll just put some Gorilla Glue on it. ;-)

Pads are super duper easy. It takes me more time to raise the car with the emergency jack and take the tires off than it does to replace the pads.

Rotors can be a little tricky to get off, depending on the manufacturer. I think the last time I did it on my latest car, I needed a special tool. I got from Autozone for free (left a deposit, my deposit was returned when I brought it back). You can probably google your specific model to to see if you need a non-standard tool.

(This message was last edited by dudesweet157 at 04:10 PM, Jun 29th, 2018)

they make a "split boot" so you dont have to remove the axle to repair. It wraps around and super glues in place. they dont tear open. Sold a ton when I worked in auto parts stores. 15 min home job which is why the shop did not offer it

A few minutes ago I didn’t know anything about CV joints and boots. I’ve linked a nice overview in case someone wants to read about these.

After reading, I can see the appeal (shortcut) of using a split boot — what a PITA any CV joint work is! Well, I have access to a lift and access to some expertise (a guy), so we’ll take a look soon, not only at the boot, but also check out the brakes. I’ve been “researching” parts online. I’ll opt for OE grade rotors — smooth, instead of the “performance” version with the slots and holes in them (as I’ve read that brake pads wear out faster with these rotors; my car and I aren’t very “performance” anyway). Replacing the calipers and hoses is a good idea, but the overall cost (and work) of the brake job doubles (at least) when opting for that. Again, it’s tempting to take the “shortcut” and just replace the rotors and pads, with a optimistically justifying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But, in my heart I know what I should do. When I check out the car on the lift, I’ll finalize my parts list. I hope this turns out to be fun.

I can't even say how many brake jobs I've done over the years -- but I can say that it's never been fun.

A couple things I haven't seen mentioned -- make sure you get the hardware kit. Pad clips and slide pin boots at least. Make sure you really clean the corrosion on the caliper mounting brackets where the pad clips are installed.

Clean and re-lube the slide pins and the mating hole in the caliper bracket.

You are doing the rear brakes so you need to be prepared for a problem with the parking brake mechanism inside the drum of the rotor. Since I do the rears about once for every three times I do the fronts, I just replace the e-brake shoes and hardware as long as I'm in there.

It appears that you have done a lot of youtube watching so I assume you known how to back the shoes off so you can remove the rotor.

Good luck. Buy plenty of Brakleen, shop towels, a box of nitrile gloves, and band-aids.

We started with the passenger side and the caliper, pads and mounting bracket came off easily. The rotor...not so much. This is a subaru and the rotors have a 8mm threaded hole that you can run bolts into to break the rotor free. That worked fine but the parking brake would not let go of the rotor. Not really knowing what we were doing, we ran the bolts into the rotor further trying to get the rotor off, eventually snapping the little "nuts" on the retaining pins. After much screaming and gnashing of teeth we got the rotor off.

Now we needed to replace the retaining pin hardware, so we ordered a hardware kit and had to wait until the next day. Meanwhile, lesson learned, we got the other side done with no real drama.

The hardware arrived and I expected to just put the new retaining pins/springs on, reinstall the rotor and reassemble the bracket, pads and caliper. No such luck.

The parking brake assembly on that side behaves as if the parking brake is set. Even with the adjuster set all the way loose, we cannot come close to getting the rotor back on. The Subaru has an electronic parking brake and it won't let me do anything with the brakes disassembled, so there's no way to try to work it loose. At this point we don't know what we're going to do. My mechanic friend said I might be able to access the cable assembly on the backside to work it loose, but I haven't had a chance to try.

After about 14 hours of very frustrating work, including about 5 trips to the auto parts store, I still don't have it put back together and don't know how I'm going to get it back together.

I'm going to look into whether I can remove the parking brake shoes, put it together and take it to a shop to see if they can figure it out. Otherwise, I'm kinda screwed.

If the first one had gone like the second, we'd have been done in about 90 minutes.

I have gotten by with replacing only the pads on numerous occasions. I didn't have the rotors turned or anything, just pads. Never ever had a problem. But, I haven't done this in years. I drove my Nissan Frontier 140k before the brakes went bad. I am not a hard braker.

I had my front pads replaced 3 years ago or so. I (now) have a slightly warped rotor. I just discovered that there is a break-in (bed in?) procedure that should be followed, and one of the consequences of not doing so could result in a warped rotor. The pads (the ones made by Power Stop, anyway) are embedded with a resin that gets “treated” thru a heating and cooling effect via specific braking sequences.

I figured I'd come back and fill you in on what our issue was. Remember when I said I was sure I disengaged the parking brake? But I also thought it was acting like the parking brake was engaged?

Well both were true. My son pulled the car into his garage (which was air conditioned) before I got there so it would be cool while we worked on it (heat index the day we started was around 107).

Well, when I got there, we started jacking it up and I thought "oh, better go make sure the parking brake is off" so I went and pulled the little switch to disengage (it's electronically controlled). Well, I use the brake regularly but didn't know that you have to have the brake pressed to disengage the parking brake, so it was never disengaged.

We ended up putting things together with the parking brake components removed, fired up the car and got the brakes pumped up. I then started messing with the parking brake and that was when we figured out what had happened. We ensured it was off, took the problem wheel back apart and reassembled everything. As you'd expect, the rotor went on like a dream.

All is well now, but a series of events and my stupidity cost us a lot of heartache.

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